Construction Worker

Pretty little girl was happy & smiley this morning!

And then for the first time, she noticed the muffins in the front lobby. These are always there for the parents to grab one of the way out (not the kids, they have breakfast brought to their classrooms), but she’s never noticed them before. But today she happened to look over & spot them, and she decided she desperately needed one! I tried to convince her she didn’t need it, and that there would be food in her classroom, but this girl is stubborn & strong-willed, and there was no getting out of it…

Today’s lunch was another hodge-podge of butter noodles, and since it was a much smaller portion than yesterday, I also had other miscellaneous items found in my work mini-fridge & snack drawer. And this book is getting really good y’all.

Y’all know we’ve been a bit low on groceries this week, so I was excited to get back into my usual habit/routine of planning & ordering… So throughout the day today, I worked on my Walmart grocery pick-up order, meal-planned for next week, and looked back through some saved recipes I haven’t made before but wanted to try.

I decided I’m going to finally make my friend Bridget’s recipe for Cincinnati chili, and I’m already so excited about it, and can’t stop thinking about it. She made it for me one time, in college, approximately 10+ years ago (she’s from Cincinnati), and I loved it. I’ve wanted to have it again ever since then, but just never got around to it. She emailed me her recipe way back in February, but then I forgot to make it. So this Sunday will finally be the day! It’s not like what we Southerner’s consider chili (meat, beans, tomatoes, eaten like a soup/stew…), because it’s like a really flavorful meat sauce that you eat over spaghetti noodles, topped with cheddar cheese & oyster crackers. And I just can’t hardly wait.

It appears Emmie had a good day at school today.

Excuse me, but is this not the cutest construction worker you’ve ever seen?!

In these next two photos, she’s holding hands with a little boy from her class (also pictured next to her above). He’s had a hard time getting used to being at daycare, and is usually upset most of the day. Yesterday when my mom was there reading, this boy just climbed right up in her lap. My mom asked Emerson his name, and she told her, and then Grammy said, “Can you be his good friend so that he’s not so sad all the time? And she said “Yeah, Gammy!” (she can’t pronounce the “r” yet.) And then Emerson reached over and patted him on the leg! So it looks like today she’s taking care of him 🙂

But the photos were circulated through email to the family, and Papa was none too happy about her holding hands with a boy! He was like, “yall stop by the house on your way home, and we will nip this in the bud today.” Aunt Meggie said we needed to have a chat about not holding hands with boys until we’re at least 30… We had some good laughs about it, but really, she is such a little sweetheart, and I love to hear and see her caring about her little friends!!

When we got home, she pkayd in the food truck, and had some Goldfish on the couch, while Mommy “cooked” dinner.

We had the leftover sweet & sour meatballs that I froze when I made them a month or so ago, plus I made some fresh white rice, and a can of green beans. Easy peasy, yummy in my tummy. Actually, the meatballs were even better than I was expecting, since they had been frozen. But they honestly tasted fresh, like I had just cooked them today! And Emerson ate sooo much food tonight! She ate probably five or six meatballs, and two servings of rice. She just kept shoveling it in, and I was so proud of how well she ate!

This plate was her first round, but she ate at least double this…

And then her and I shared an oatmeal cream pie on the couch for dessert. It washer first one, and she loved it! It was my first in yearrrs (we got them BOGO at Publix a few weeks ago, and just now opened them), and dang that thing was good!

Dino jammies for bed time, while playing with her do-do blanket and some animals and babies.

Sweet little girl saying her night-night prayers with Mommy.

And then after three lullaby songs (only eight minutes), she was OUT. She was twitching in my arms, and she got really heavy and limp. Maybe with all that eating, and all this sleeping (two-hour nap at school yesterday & today), she might be going through a little growth spurt?!

After getting her down, I started a new audio book, and got busy. This is the fifth and most recent book by this author, just published in August. I’ve already read (listened) to all the others, and I really enjoyed them. They are a little suspenseful, but not super scary. I also really love this audio book narrator, and would listen to just about any book she reads.

I packed away our leftovers in Tupperware for tomorrow’s lunches, washed all the dishes, cleaned the countertop, re-filled my “fancy” S&P shakers, and cleaned out my spices. I was looking to see if I had a few specific ones for some new recipes, and I decided to just clean them all out. I got rid of expired ones, or almost empty ones, some dried-up honey, and even some Pepto that was in the way back of the cabibet for some reason. And even that little bit of cleaning up made me feel so productive and proud of myself 😆

After “all that work,” now it’s time to sit down and watch “Fringe!” We are on the season four finale, and then season five was only a half-season, with just 13-ish episodes, so we’re getting really close to the end of the series, which I am both excited for and not ready for at the same time!